NOTHING BUT THE TRUTH – JOHN KHANI

CHARACTERS

If you know the characters of a play, you know the story. Here is a list of all the characters in

the play, those mentioned and those performing. There is only three characters on stage –

Sipho, Mandisa, and Thando. The rest of the characters are all characters that are discussed

by these three.

Mrs Potgieter Says it is time a black person takes over the library. She will apply for an early retirement

package. She phoned to say she was sorry he did not get the job and wanted to know if he

was ok about it all.

Chief Director of Language and Heritage Says Mrs Potgieter recommended Sipho

Sipho Says Themba could never take responsibility. Themba could never do anything wrong.

Themba was an activist that caused a lot of trouble for other people and himself. Sipho is

the oldest. He has two more years to work before he retires. He looks forward to getting the

job to run the library. He doesn’t like viewing dead people much. His father once forced him

to look at dead people in coffins at a funeral. Sipho says his wife loved Thando very much.

When Sipho was young he made himself a double decker bus from wire. Themba cried

because he wanted to play with it. Sipho’s mother told Sipho to give the bus to Themba. A

bakery van drove over the bus because Themba was in the way.

He does not like going to the TRC hearings. He wants to be the Chief Librarian of the PE

library. He has been in that library for 33 years. He is 63 years old.

Mr Chireni & Mrs Chireni

Sipho & Sidiswe & other wife

Luvuoy Thando

Themba & Sidiswe & Mrs

Makaya

Mandisa

Sipho went drinking when he did not get the job at the library. A young person from

Johannesburg was appointed. They said he was too old to take over the library. The

qualifications of the newly appointed librarian is the fact that he has been in exile.

Sipho cried for months when his son Luvuyo was killed. Sipho does not find out from the

TRC meetings how or who killed Sipho. Sipho blames Themba for Luvuyo’s death. Luvuyo

worshipped Themba and wanted to step into Themba’s footsteps when he left the country.

Sipho started working at Spilkin & Spilkin attorneys. They pronounced his name incorrectly.

He worked there with two other white clerks. Sipho did not get the chance to article there

because Mr Spilkin took on white clerks. He left Spilkin&Spilkin to be trained at the PE

library. He got the job there. Sipho gave money for Themba’s keep at university.

Sipho enrolled at UNISA and did a Diploma in Librarian Management. He passed with

distinction in two years. He earned good money to support his father and Themba and

Luvuyo. Sipho raised Luvuyo. While Sipho was at work, Themba looked after Luvuyo.

Mrs Meyers put Sipho in charge of the African section in the library. Before she left she

made Sipho her assistant and that is how Sipho became Assistant Chief Librarian.

Thando’s mother came to the library to see where Sipho worked. She wanted to know who

the man on the bus was who always had a different book in his hand. She wanted to borrow

the books from Sipho before he returned it to the library. Sipho was in love. They married

within six months.

They could not conceive a child because the doctor said Sipho’s sperm count was not high

enough. In the fourth year she fell pregnant.

Sipho did not get the job as Chief Librarian. He could remain at the library and take the

pension package when he is done.

Sipho doesn’t want Thando to go to London because he loves her. He is afraid that it will

change everything. He thinks Mandisa is just like her father.

Sipho seriously want to know why Themba did not come back when the other exiles came

back. He wants to know why Themba was not part of the Kempton Park delegation.

Sipho remarks that Themba is taking from him even now that he is dead. In 1987 when

Sipho’s father died, Themba could not come for the funeral. The UDF took over the

arrangements for the funeral. It was Themba’s wishes. Sipho was just comrade Themba’s

brother. Sipho paid for the coffin and the food everybody ate. There were twelve speakers.

At the graveyard Sipho was not the first to throw ground on the coffin. There was a riot and

the police intervened. At the end, when everybody was gone, Sipho came and filled the

grave with soil, planted the gross with his name, date of birth and date of death. He said a

little prayer, said goodbye to his father and was very angry at Themba.

Themba was a political activist who never threw one stone at a police station. He was a

great talker. He was always amongst the speakers, at the great Centenary Hall, at the Dan

Qege Stadium. He always said what the people wanted to hear. He called for stayaways

when he was himself unemployed, when he never ever had a job in his life. He called for

consumer boycotts when he knew who bought the food he ate. He supported the students’

school boycott when he had no child at school. He proposes rent boycotts when he did not

have a house. He went to these meetings because he was hunting for other people’s wives.

There was not a single woman who had not slept with Themba. Sipho was always worried

some boyfriend or husband would kill Themba even before the security police could. That is

why Sipho blames him for his son’s death.

The last time Sipho saw Luvuyo was when he was going to recite a poem at a little girl’s

funeral. Luvuyo called him a coward because Sipho did not want him to go. Luvuyo said

Themba was right, Sipho was a coward.

Themba was in the struggle but on his terms – to get money, women and fame.

Themba left the country because he had a fight with Sipho. Sipho’s wife stopped loving him,

she slept with Themba. Thando was Themba’s daughter.

Sipho wanted the job as Chief Librarian. He feels the country owes him. He voted for Nelson

Mandela as president. He was part of the struggle. He went to rallies, he suffered as a black

person. He attended the funerals, was teargasses, sjamboked and mauled by Alsation dogs

and yet his life has not changed. He was part of the thousands that were led through white

Port Elizabeth by Tutu. He feels he deserves some recognition. He wants his wire double

decker bus back, he wants his blazer back, he wants his wife back, he wants his daughter

back. He wants his son back. He wants to know from DE KLERK who killed his son. He wants

the current government to re-open Luvuyo’s case, to investigate it and report back to the

Attorney General. He wants the policeman to be put in jail. He wants the policeman to be

kept in jail and to be judged by a black judge. The accused must be found guilty, he must be

sentenced and serve time in prison for killing. He must be taken to St Alban’s prison. He

must be searched, his head must be shaven, he must sleep on a grey blanket, he must know

he is serving time, only then can he apply for amnesty. I will not forgive him but will agree

that he can receive amnesty because he has disclosed all. It is not about being happy, it is

not about forgiveness, it is about justice.

If I don’t get the job as chief librarian I will burn down the library. I will prove to them that

my crime was politically motivated.

Sipho just wanted Themba to come and stand in front of him and say he was sorry. He never

really blamed him for Luvuyo’s death, it was the only way he could deal with it.

Sipho will always love his wife. Sipho says if he can forgive all the white people for what they

have done to this country, why not forgive his own brother as well.

Themba was a political activist and everybody liked him and that made Sipho jealous. If

Themba stayed the police would have killed him.

Sipho is going to leave the library. Then he is going to apply for a grant to build the first

African Library in Port Elizabeth.

Sipho and Themba’s Mother Temba never made a mistake. She died before Themba graduated. She was the only one

who ever said she loved Sipho.

Sipho and Themba’s father He always talked about Themba. He blamed Sipho from not stopping Themba from leaving

the country. He said Sipho would outlive them all. He cashed in an Old Mutual Life Insurance

policy to pay for Themba’s studies, but did not pay for Sipho’s studies. He openly favoured

Themba.

Themba He was a man of the struggle. He was handsome and a lady’s man. He got along with his

mother. He was a political activist. He married a wife from the West Indies. They stayed in

London. They had one child called Mandisa.

Always got what he wanted. He has the gift of the gab. He can get out of trouble by telling

any story.

He wanted to be buried next to his father and mother, now they only had his ashes there.

He was cremated in England.

Themba was one of the ANC cadres studying in Nigeria. In London he became very active.

He worked with the Anti-apartheids and the ANC.

Hugh and Miriam were performing at some venue when Themba got ill from his heart. He

started longing for home. He did not come back when Mandela was released because of his

job. His health never improved enough so that they could return. He called their family

together about six months ago and asked them to ask his brother to bury him, next to his

parents. Closer to his ancestors.

Wanted Mandisa to marry a South African black man even if it meant Mandisa had to look

for one among the children of the exiled South Africans.

Themba finished high school and was sent to Fort Hare university with money he got from

somewhere. The father paid for boarding and tuition and Themba paid for everything else.

Themba took 5 years to finish a 3 year course. He only wore the best clothes. Themba

graduated and never got a job. Sipho and his father supported Themba. Themba told his

family he graduated top of his class.

Themba said the woman Sipho fell in love with was not his type.

Themba said Sipho was a bit conservative.

Themba slept with Sipho’s wife for three years.

Themba did love Sipho. During his last days he only talked about Sipho.

Sipho’s wife (Sidiswe Makhapela) Fell in love with Sipho because he read books. She married him. They could not conceive for

three years. She betrayed Sipho by sleeping with Themba.

She has left them. She has never made contact with Thando or Sipho again. She loved

Thando.

Mpho Thando’s boyfriend. Mpho knows when he marries Thando he will have to look after Sipho

as well. He is a history teacher. He has been together with Thando for four years.

The Undertaker – Mr Khahla Was confused because there was no body to collect at the airport.

Reverend Haya Would perform the ceremony at the funeral. There will be a funeral even if there is no body.

The ashes represent the body.

Mandisa – Themba’s daughter Would have stayed at the Garden Court Plaza. Her name is Mandisa McKay. McKay is the

modern version of Makhaya. Her mother is from Barbados. She only knows the children of

her father’s friends in exile. She has her mother’s hair and she looks like her great Aunt on

her father’s side. Was born in Camden Town, middle-class suburb of England. She went to

the best schools. She studied fashion design instead of becoming a doctor like her father

wanted her to.

She grew up listening to all the stories about home. The struggle, the songs. Their house was

like a halfway house, with many visitors.

She could not take the pressure going out with Derek. The black women congratulated her

and black men only said she was testing the waters. Now she has no boyfriend and is back

on the market.

She is preparing for the London Fashion Week. She wants to go and visit the designer in

Johannesburg and wants Thando to go with her.

She invites Thando to London for three weeks. She tells Thando to forget about her father

and let Sipho look after himself for a while.

Mandisa decides Sipho is jealous of her father and has always been. Mandisa does not want

to believe the story about the funeral.

Thando Sipho’s daughter. She works at the TRC hearings as a translator. She is in love with Mpho

and wants to get married only if he will take in her father as well. She has tremendous

respect for her father and obeys his rules. She has never been disobedient. She can forgive

the atrocities of the past because Nelson Mandela can. She has faith in the process of the

amnesty hearings and says Mandisa cannot judge from 6000 miles away in London.

Thando decides to go with Mandisa without her father’s permission. In the end she realises

she loves her father, she is his daughter and she will respect him.

Mandisa’s Mother She is the second generation of her family born in London. She has West Indian roots. Her

family lives in Barbados. She works with Amnesty in

International. She met Themba in Lagos, Nigeria when she worked at the amnesty office.

They got married in London.

Did a lot for the ANC by exposing the treatment of prisoners.

She always said: “Have fun, flirt a little so that you don’t feel like you missed out on a lot fo

the good things in life before you get trapped in marriage.’

Wants Mandisa to marry a well-to-do man from the West Indies.

Nandipa Madikiza A designer in Johannesburg that might help Mandisa with her designs.

Luvuyo Thando’s brother. He was killed. He was not her mother’s child, but was her father’s child.

He was killed during the student uprisings. The police killed him. He was a poet. He thought

Sipho was a coward.

Derek Loxworth Mandisa was in love with him five years ago. He was English. His family adored Mandisa,

especially his sisters.

Bra Hugh

Sis Miriam

TRADITIONS Paying lobola to get married.

Having an actual body at a funeral, not ashes.

If two brothers have daughters then their daughters are sisters and not cousins.

If a father and a sister both have daughters then they are cousins, because they

don’t share the same clan and surname.

As children you should show respect for the death of an uncle of father for at least a

month. You may not travel anywhere in that time.

African men love their sons more than their daughters.

Believe in communicating with ancestors.

An ox is slaughtered at a funeral to clear the passage of the dead to the ancestors.

You don’t go out on the evening before a funeral.

New words and abbreviations Dadobawu – Uncle

Malume – Aunt

Ndiyitombi yakwa Makhaya e Ma Cereni – Mandisa’s name.

TRC – Truth and Reconciliation Commission

Umhlaba emhlaben, uthuthu elithuthwini, ethuli elithulwinie – earth to eart, ashes to ashes

and dust to dust

Bavumile inkomo exhelwe ngomgqubelo – The ox must be slaughtered on Saturday to clear

the passage to the ancestors

Sifo – means disease

Sipho – means blessing

Lala ngozolo mfo wase Ma Cirene – Sipho’s father’s name.

Historical events

These are the historical events referred to in the play. It is a good thing to read through

them because it will help you understand the play and the emotion with which the play

was written.

TRC - The South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) was set up by the

Government of National Unity to help deal with what happened under apartheid. The

conflict during this period resulted in violence and human rights abuses from all sides. No

section of society escaped these abuses.

The TRC was based on the Promotion of National Unity and Reconciliation Act, No 34 of

1995 (pd

"... a commission is a necessary exercise to enable South Africans to come to terms with

their past on a morally accepted basis and to advance the cause of reconciliation."

Mr Dullah Omar, former Minister of Justice

Bra Hugh

Hugh Masekela

Hugh Masekela is a world-renowned flugelhornist, trumpeter, bandleader, composer, singer and defiant political voice who remains deeply connected at home, while his international career sparkles. He was born in the town of Witbank, South Africa in 1939. At the age of 14, the deeply respected advocator of equal rights in South Africa, Father Trevor Huddleston, provided Masekela with a trumpet and, soon after, the Huddleston Jazz Band was formed. Masekela began to hone his, now signature, Afro-Jazz sound in the late 1950s during a period of intense creative collaboration, most notably performing in the 1959 musical King Kong, written by Todd Matshikiza, and, soon thereafter, as a member of the now legendary South African group, the Jazz Epistles (featuring the classic line up of Kippie Moeketsi, Abdullah Ibrahim and Jonas Gwangwa).

In 1960, at the age of 21 he left South Africa to begin what would be 30 years in exile from the land of his birth. On arrival in New York he enrolled at the Manhattan School of Music. This coincided with a golden era of jazz music and the young Masekela immersed himself in the New York jazz scene where nightly he watched greats like Miles Davis, John Coltrane, Thelonious Monk, Charlie Mingus and Max Roach. Under the tutelage of Dizzy Gillespie and Louis Armstrong, Hugh was encouraged to develop his own unique style, feeding off African rather than American influences – his debut album, released in 1963, was entitled Trumpet Africaine.

In the late 1960s Hugh moved to Los Angeles in the heat of the ‘Summer of Love’, where he was befriended by hippie icons like David Crosby, Peter Fonda and Dennis Hopper. In 1967 Hugh performed at the Monterey Pop Festival alongside Janis Joplin, Otis Redding, Ravi Shankar, The Who and Jimi Hendrix. In 1968, his instrumental single ‘Grazin’ in the Grass’ went to Number One on the American pop charts and was a worldwide smash, elevating Hugh onto the international stage.

His subsequent solo career has spanned 5 decades, during which time he has released over 40 albums (and been featured on countless more) and has worked with such diverse artists as Harry Belafonte, Dizzy Gillespie, The Byrds, Fela Kuti, Marvin Gaye, Herb Alpert, Paul Simon, Stevie Wonder and the late Miriam Makeba.

In 1990 Hugh returned home, following the unbanning of the ANC and the release of Nelson Mandela – an event anticipated in Hugh’s anti-apartheid anthem ‘Bring Home Nelson Mandela’ (1986) which had been a rallying cry around the world.

Sis Miriam

Names: Makeba, Miriam

Born: 4 March 1932, Johannesburg, South Africa

Died: 9 November 2008

In summary: South African singer and human rights campaigner, Makeba was the first vocalist to put African

music onto the international map in the 1960s. Makeba is well known throughout the world known as 'Mama

Africa' and the 'Empress of African Song'.

Miriam Makeba was born in Johannesburg in 1932, during a time of economic depression. Her mother, a

domestic worker, was imprisoned for six months for illegally brewing beer to help make ends meet, and Miriam

went to prison with her as she was just 18 days old.

Makeba’s mother was also a sangoma, or a practitioner of herbal medicine, divination and counselling in

traditional Zulu, Xhosa, Ndebele and Swazi (Nguni) societies of Southern Africa.

After her father died, Miriam was sent to live with her grandmother at a compound in Riverside, Pretoria. From a

young age, Makeba loved to sing at church, and performed her first solo during the 1947 Royal Visit.

Miriam began her working life helping her mother clean houses. In the 1950s, she lived in Sophiatown when it

was a vibrant place and one of the few areas where all races could mix. It was the scene of kwela music, marabi

and African jazz and big band music became popular.

Miriam Makeba began her music career singing for her cousin’s band, the Cuban Brothers, but it was only when

she began to sing for the Manhattan Brothers in 1954 that she began to build a reputation. She toured South

Africa, Zimbabwe (former Rhodesia) and the Congo with the band until 1957. After this Makeba sang for all-

women group, the Skylarks, which combined jazz and traditional African melodies.

Makeba’s appearances in the films Come Back Africa (1957) and as the female lead in Todd Matshikiza’s King

Kong (1959) cemented her reputation in the music industry both locally and abroad. She later married her King

Kong co-star, Hugh Masekela, in 1964.

King Kong was about a boxer who kills his sweetheart and later dies in prison. The musical, publicised as a ‘jazz

opera’, was a big success in South Africa. To avoid the apartheid laws that divided the public, the musical was

often performed at universities.

For her small part in Come Back Africa (as a ‘shebeen’ singer singing the titles ‘Lakutshon Ilanga’ and ‘Saduva’),

Makeba was flown to the Venice film festival in 1959 so that she could personally receive an award for the movie.

The film was a documentary on South Africa made by an American film director, Lionel Togosin.

Makeba was soon in trouble with the South African authorities, who had received negative attention through the

presentation of the film. Therefore, Makeba decided not to return to South Africa from where she got little or

nothing in terms of payment for her performances.

The South African government then revoked her passport and denied her the possibility of returning to South

Africa. She was the first black musician to leave South Africa on account of apartheid, and over the years many

others would follow her.

Makeba took up refuge in London after the Venice film festival and met Harry Belafonte, who helped her to

immigrate to the USA. In the early 1960s, she shot to fame in the USA overnight, and performed for former US

President John F. Kennedy at Madison Square Garden in 1962. Among her other admirers were Marlon Brando,

Bette Davis, Nina Simone and Miles Davis.

Makeba said of people imitating her ‘look’:

"I see other black women imitate my style, which is no style at all, but just letting our hair be itself. They call it the

Afro Look."

In 1960, when she tried to return to South Africa for her mother’s funeral, she discovered that her passport had

been revoked. In 1963, she testified about apartheid at the United Nations and her South African citizenship was

taken away from her. She lived in the US thereafter and her records were banned in South Africa.

In 1966, she won a Grammy award for An Evening with Harry Belafonte in 1965. She was also the first black

woman to have a Top-Ten worldwide hit with Pata Pata in 1967. In total, she recorded four albums in the USA. It

was in the United States that she also recorded her famous Qogothwane (The “Click” Song).

In 1968, she married militant African-American civil rights activist and Black Panther leader Stokely Carmichael

but harassment from the US government and forced to move to Guineau. They separated in 1978.

After moving to Guinea, Makeba managed to find work outside the USA. She toured Europe, South America and

Africa in the 1970s and 1980s. During these years she performed mostly in trade union halls, cultural institutions

and on other small stages. She also appeared at jazz festivals like the Montreux in Berlin.

It was during this period that Makeba addressed the United Nations’ General Assembly twice, speaking out

against apartheid as a Guinean delegate to the United Nations (UN). In 1986, she was awarded the Dag

Hammerskjold Peace Prize from the Diplomatic Academy for Peace.

According to her biography, the 1980s were a difficult time for Makeba, as she separated from Carmichael and

her daughter, Bongi, died in tragic circumstances. She also battled with alcohol abuse and cervical cancer during

this period.

In 1987, she joined American folk singer Paul Simon’s highly successful Graceland tour to newly independent

Zimbabwe. The concert featured multicultural sounds and drew attention to racist policies still prevalent in South

Africa, despite the fact that it technically violated the cultural boycott of South Africa. After Graceland, Miriam was

in great demand, and went on to perform for heads of state, and even the Pope.

In 1990, ANC leader Nelson Mandela was freed from 27 years in prison, and encouraged Miriam Makeba to

return to South Africa. She then returned, after 31 years in exile, and became a goodwill ambassador for South

Africa to the United Nations.

After her return to South Africa, Makeba struggled to find collaborators, but six years later she produced the

album “Homecoming”. In 1997, she embarked on her Farewell Tour and appeared in the movie Mama by

Veronique Patte Doumbe.

In 1998 she toured Africa, the USA and Europe and sold out theatres. In 2002, Makeba starred in Lee Hirsch's

opulent and exciting documentary Amandla about the powerful part of music in the struggle against apartheid.

Makeba has received honorary doctorates from both local and international academic institutions. The city of

Berkeley proclaimed the 16 June to be Miriam Makeba Day and she has received the highest decoration from

Tunisia. In 1999, Nelson Mandela presented her with the Presidential Award (see awards for more).

In 2005, Makeba announced her retirement for the mainstream music industry but she continued to make

appearances and to do smaller performances.

Throughout her career Makeba insisted that her music was not consciously political in an interview with the

British times she said:

"I'm not a political singer… I don't know what the word means. People think I consciously decided to tell the world

what was happening in South Africa. No! I was singing about my life, and in South Africa we always sang about

what was happening to us - especially the things that hurt us."

Makeba continued her humanitarian work through her Zenzile Miriam Makeba Foundation, including the Miriam

Makeba Rehabilitation Centre for abused girls. She also supported campaigns against drug abuse and HIV/Aids

awareness. Furthermore she appeared as President Mbeki’s Goodwill Ambassador to the UN.

Makeba died in 2008, at the age 76, after having a of a heart attack after a 30 minute performance at a concert

for Roberto Saviano near the southern Italian town of Caserta.

"I kept my culture. I kept the music of my roots. Through my music I became this voice and image of Africa and

the people without even realising," – quote by Miriam Makeba written in her biography (2004)

Note: A sangoma is a practitioner of herbal medicine, divination and counselling in traditional Nguni (Zulu,

Xhosa, Ndebele and Swazi) societies of Southern Africa.

Cradock Case:

The Truth and Reconciliation Commission's amnesty committee in Port Elizabeth has

reserved a decision on re-opening the case of the seven policemen who admitted to

murdering the Cradock Four in 1985, SABC radio news reported on Monday. George Bizos,

representing their families at a special one-day sitting of the committee, lodged an

application for the re-opening of the case on the basis of new evidence in the minutes of a

apartheid state security council meeting held in March 1984 The four former United

Democratic Front activists, Matthew Goniwe, Fort Calata, Sparrow Mkhonto and Sicelo

Mhlauli, were killed on a journey between Cradock and Port Elizabeth in 1985. Their

stabbed and burnt bodies were found in the dunes on a vacant stretch of coast. Police

initially claimed they had been killed by vigilantes. But subsequently seven security

policemen - Nic van Rensburg, Herman du Plessis, Sakkie van Zyl, Eric Taylor, Gerhardus

Lotz, Harold Snynman and former Vlakplaas head Eugene de Kock - applied for amnesty on

the grounds that they were trying to quell unrest in the Eastern Cape by killing the UDF

leaders. Government ministers at the time denied that this was officially sanctioned. But

minutes of a government state security meeting held shortly before their deaths and

produced during De Kock's amnesty application appeared to indicate that a request to have

Goniwe eliminated emanated from government ministers. The minutes proved the case

should be re-opened because the amnesty applicants were not telling the truth, Bizos said.

The applicants' defence counsel, Kobus Booyens, opposed re-opening the case and

questioned whether the document would have any influence on the granting of amnesty.

Committee chairman, Judge Ronnie Pillay, said a decision would be reached soon.

Parcel Bombs

Ruth First (p.28) Former Brigadier Willem Schoon is seeking amnesty for the attempted murder of Mr Schoon in Botswana 1981. TRC media spokesman Vuyani Green said the Amnesty Committee has already heard an amnesty application by another former Vlakplaas commander, Dirk Coetzee, regarding the attempt to kill Mr Schoon.

Mr Schoon's wife Jeanette and her daughter Katryn were murdered in Angola in the 1980s. Brigadier Schoon's testimony will be the last by a former security police in a marathon amnesty hearing involving former high ranking security branch policemen including former Police Commissioner General Johan Coetzee, who was one of eight policemen seeking amnesty for the 1982 London bombing.

Advocate George Bozos, counsel for the victims, is expected to call this week to the witness stand several witnesses including Deputy Finance Minister Jill Marcus, Environmental Affairs Minister Pallo Jordaan and Transport Minister Marc Maharaj.

Craig Williamson (p.28)was on Friday accused of arranging a letter bomb attack on Marius and Jeanette Schoon out of revenge following their attempts to expose him as an apartheid police spy.

Williamson has applied for amnesty for the letter bomb murder of Jeanette Schoon and her six-year-old daughter Katryn in Angola in 1984.

Testifying before the Truth and Reconciliation Commission's amnesty committee in Pretoria, Williamson denied the claim by the Schoon's lawyer, George Bizos SC, that the motive for the attack was to "settle old scores".

Bizos suggested that Williamson planned the bomb attack because the Schoons had been suspicious of him and had instituted an investigation against him which led to his unmasking as a police spy.

"This is news to me," Williamson replied, saying that nobody had previously accused him of acting out of revenge in bombing the Schoons.

Williamson said he was exposed in 1980 when former National Intelligence Services agent Arthur McGivern defected to the African National Congress, and took with him a large number of government files which he knew would reveal his true occupation.

He said his exposure had nothing to do with the efforts of the Schoons, who were living in Botswana at the time.

He claims the bomb attack attack on the Schoons was planned by his security police unit after intelligence was received that they were teaching English to Cuban soldiers in Angola. He said this might have had implications for Cuban air defences against SA Air Force raids.

Williamson also denied that he said "it serves them right" when he heard that the Schoon's daughter was killed in the blast.

According to the amnesty application of former security policeman Gerrie Raven, who has admitted making the letter bomb, Williamson said the Schoons had used their daughter as a bomb disposal system by allowing her to play with parcels that were delivered before they were opened.

Williamson denied this remark, but said it was possible that other policemen could have said something to that effect at the time.

"But you congratulated Raven after receiving news of the blast," Bizos said to Williamson, who claimed he had done so because the device had exploded successfully.

"But the device killed a child. Any person with a drop of humanity would have said `woe to us, we have killed a child', or anybody with any human decency," Bizos said.

Williamson replied that it had never been his intention to target a child and he still thought of the death of Katryn Schoon every day of his life.

Williamson, who studied at the University of the Witwatersrand with the Schoons, said he had been their friend, but their involvement in the ANC made them his enemies.

Bizos told Williamson that Schoon, who has attended all the hearings, never considered the former spy a friend.

"Does that make you feel happier," Bizos asked of the former spy, who replied that it did not.

Bizos also accused Williamson of targeting women in his attempts to demoralise the ANC. Williamson replied that he had been involved in operations in which "more than just women" had been killed.

Earlier in the hearing it emerged that Robert McBride conducted an interview with Williamson about the death of anti-apartheid activist Ruth First, who was killed in a letter bomb attack in Maputo in 1982 - another crime for which Williamson is applying for amnesty.

A transcript of the interview was on Friday presented to the amnesty hearing.

There was no indication as to when and where the interview was conducted and in what capacity McBride was talking to the former spy.

McBride is a former ANC soldier who spent six years on death row for killing three people when he bombed a bar in Durban.

Williamson's lawyer, Allan Levine, claimed the interview was surreptitiously recorded and passed on to First's daughter, Gillian Slovo.

Bizos said Slovo obtained the tape from McBride in an effort to get information about Williamson's role in her mother's death. Bizos said the tape was then mistakenly mixed up with tapes of an interview Slovo herself later conducted with Williamson.

Bizos said during transcription of the tapes, Slovo's name was mistakenly attributed to the questions asked by McBride.

Levine told the committee the interview was recordeded without Williamson's permission. He claimed the inclusion of the McBride tape in Slovo's interview was irregular and called for an investigation.

The presence of the McBride interview led to acrimonious exchanges between the legal representatives and at one stage Levine requested that Bizos' cross examination be stopped pending the outcome of the investigation into the origin of the tape.

Committee chairman Judge Andrew Wilson ruled that Levine should clarify the matter with Bizos as to how the mistake had come about and that the cross-examination should continue.

In the McBride interview, Williamson reveals his involvement in the murder of First and how the letter bomb was prepared and delivered to Mozambique.

Pebco 3 (p29) Four Security Police involved in the abduction and killing of three leaders of the Blacks Civics Organisation (Pebco) in Port Elizabeth were refused amnesty today by the Amnesty Committee of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission.

All the applicants arise out of disappearance of what is known as the Pebco Three leaders, Sipho Hashe, Qaqawuli Godolozi and Champion Galela. The three community leaders were abducted at the Port Elizabeth airport on May 8, 1985 and subsequently murdered near Cradock on a farm known as Post Chalmers. Their bodies were collected, burnt and thrown into the Fish River, according to the applicants.

The amnesty applications were heard in Port Elizabeth in November 1997. The amnesty applications by the Security Police were opposed by the widows of the three leaders on the basis that there was no full disclosure.

Those refused amnesty are Herman Barend Du Plessis, former Commanding Officer of the Security Police in Port Elizabeth, Johannes Martin Van Zyl, Gideon Niewoudt and Gerhardus Johannes Lotz, all attached to the Security Branch.

Du Plessis was refused amnesty for conspiring, ordering the abduction and murder of the three deceased.

Van Zyl, Niewoudt and Lotz were refused amnesty for abduction and murder of the three leaders. The reason for refusal being the failure to make a full disclosure in respect of the assaults. The Committee said it would be too artificial and absurd in the circumstances of the case to separate the two offences as they were both committed in a continuous chain of events.

Another Security Police officer Gerhardus Cornelius Beeslaar was refused amnesty for offences of abduction and assault on Sipho Hashe. The Committee found that Beeslaar has not shown that he had any political objective when he assaulted Hashe. Beeslaar has not made a good impression to the committee and his evidence displayed a selective memory of the events. "He has not disclosed his part in and knowledge of the role of others in the assaults and torture".

The committee also refused amnesty to Van Zyl because there was no evidence that he had any political objective when he took possession of the said firearm in 1975 and the fact that it was used in 1985 in the elimination of the Pebco 3, does automatically alter its possession into an offence associated with a political objective. Van Zyl was also refused amnesty for unlawful possession of an unlicensed firearm and defeating the ends of justice.

The committee refused amnesty to Johannes Koole for abduction of the Pebco 3 and assault on Hashe and Godolozi.

The only senior Security Police Officer who was granted amnesty in respect of conspiring and ordering the abduction and murder of the Pebco 3, was former Head of Security Police in Port Elizabeth, Harold Snyman. Snyman failed to attend his amnesty hearing because of health reasons and he has since died.

Also granted amnesty was Kimani Peter Mogoai an Askari in respect of the abduction of the three leaders and for assault on Hashe and Godolozi. The committee declared the widows of the three leaders as victims for purposes of Rehabilitation and Reparation.

A former ANC Cadre and Askari, Joe Mamasela was the only witness who gave different evidence about the events leading to the abduction and killing of the three leaders. The committee found that Mamasela was alone in his evidence that all Vlakplaas group members and a members of Security Police were involved in what he described as a brutal torture and murder of the deceased after they were abducted.

The applicants claimed that the three leaders has to be killed because they posed a danger being involved in the underground operation of the ANC in Port Elizabeth

Chris Hani (p.29)

The Amnesty Committee of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) refused amnesty

to Janusz Walus and Clive Derby-Lewis, the assassins of Chris Hani, leader of the SA

Communist Party. Walus, a Polish immigrant, on 10 April 1993 shot and killed Hani in the

driveway of his home in Dawn Park, Boksburg. He used a gun supplied by Derby-Lewis. The

Committee found that both applicants failed to make a full disclosure and political

motivation in respect of any of the relevant and material issues set out in the Promotion of

National Unity and Reconciliation Act, No 34 of 1995. The Committee resolved "It is

common course that the applicants were not acting on their express authority or orders

from the Conservative Party (CP) which they purport to represent in assassinating Mr. Hani.

The CP has never adopted, propagated or espoused a policy of violence or assassination of

political opponents." Presently they are both serving life sentences for the murder.

Kempton Park Negotiations On 2 April 1993, the Multi-Party Negotiation Process (MPNP) began at the World Trade

Centre in Kempton Park. The structure and process was very different to CODESA. Non-

partisan specialists were included, and they helped speed up proceedings and resolve areas

of difference. In contrast to CODESA, the white right (the Conservative Party and the

Afrikaner Volksunie), the Pan Africanist Congress, the KwaZulu Bantustan government and

delegations of "traditional leaders" initially participated in the Multiparty Negotiating

Forum.

The structure of the MPNP was comprehensive and more efficient than the five working

groups of CODESA. Working groups were replaced by the negotiating council, which

reported to a negotiating forum. The negotiating forum was responsible for finalising all

decisions made. All agreements were sent to the plenary for endorsement. Technical

committees comprising non-party experts were established to deal with written

submissions from the various political players. This committee was effective in breaking

deadlocks.

The two main negotiating parties, the ANC and the NP, agreed to reach bilateral consensus

on issues before taking them to the other parties in the forum. This put considerable

pressure on the other parties to agree with the consensus or be left behind.

In protest at the perceived sidelining of the Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP), Mangosuthu

Buthelezi took the IFP out of the MPNF and formed the Concerned South Africans Group

(COSAG; later renamed the "Freedom Alliance") together with traditional leaders, homeland

leaders and white right-wing groups. A period of brinkmanship followed, with the IFP

remaining out of the negotiations until within days of the election on 27 April 1994.

UDF

The United Democratic Front (UDF) was an anti-apartheid body that incorporated many

anti-apartheid organisations. It was launched in 1983, in Mitchells Plain. FORGIVENESS

The Truth and reconciliation commission

They are listening to crimes committed during Apartheid and they decide who must

receive amnesty and who not. Who can be forgiven and who not.

Sipho forgiving Themba

Is it about justice? Sipho reaches the point where he can forgive Themba because

Themba says he is sorry.

The TRC reaches the point where people are forgiven because they say they are

sorry, like Sipho is prepared to forgive his brother for saying he is sorry. It is not

about justice and punishment.

WHAT HAS THEMBA TAKEN FROM SIPHO?

1. His double decker wire bus.

2. His blazer

3. The affection of his father and a university education.

4. His son, Luvuyo

5. His wife

6. His daughter

7. His income during his life (Sipho had to support Themba financially)

THE HOUSE THEY LIVED IN

Note that everything in Sipho’s life has changed except the place where he lives. The

country has changed, his family has changed. Maybe his circumstances should have changed

with everything else changing? The house is a constant reminder of that which he has lost

but it is also a reminder of who he is and what he has.

Although he physically lives in the same house where everything has happened to him, he

has changed his perspective of how he thinks about everything. The place is the same but

his thoughts about everything has changed.

THE TITLE

NOTHING BUT THE TRUTH

1. At the Truth and Reconciliation Commission they expect you to tell the truth and

nothing but the truth. If you reveal all, you will maybe get amnesty.

2. What is the real truth about Themba? Was he really a struggle hero or was he the

womanizer Sipho describes? Did he leave because he slept with Sipho’s wife?

3. Now that Sipho revealed the real truth about his brother’s life, did he find peace?

4. Is South Africa better off?

If South Africa is to survive and prosper reconciliation is absolutely essential. But true

reconciliation will only happen when we are able to confront what happened yesterday

without bitterness. We cannot just sweep it under the carpet and hope that suddenly

we live in brotherly and sisterly love in a state of blissful amnesia.

For those of us who are survivors of the past it is important that we do not forget. We

owe it to future generations that what happened to us must never happen again. It must

never be repeated by those who oppressed us before. But most importantly, we

ourselves must never assume the new role of oppressor. And only history can teach us

those lessons.

We must never forget, but this does not mean we must cling to the past, and wrap it

around us, and live for it, and be perpetual victims wallowing in masochistic memory of

our national humiliation. We only look back to the past in order to have a better

understanding of our present. This is one of the greatest lessons of Nothing but the

Truth